Essay help
Pre-project: turning in your proposed proposal
· A properly-formatted ( ASA style (Links to an external site.) ) list of the literature you plan to cite (you don't need to actually write your literature review for the proposal)
· The following components from Step 4 (below):
· The population you intend to study and why it is the best choice of population to answer your question.
· Who your control group will be.
· What the experimental condition (or conditions) will be.
· What measurement tools you will use to assess the outcome of the experiment.
· How participants’ safety and confidentiality will be ensured.
· What tools you will use to assess and analyze the data.
Step 1
Choose a topic of interest to you. The parameters for the topic are as follows:
· Your question must fit comfortably within the purview of either Social Psychology or Microsociology.
· Your question should be something you find intrinsically interesting.
· Your question must be one whose answer you can arrive at through experimental methods.
· Although it seems obvious, your question by phrased as a question rather than a statement about a topic. "Conformity in groups" is a topic, not a question. "Which factors are most influential in determining whether an Instagram user makes non-conforming comments on a post?" is a question.
Make sure that the question you pick has not, to your knowledge, already been answered. Although this might seem obvious, it’s not. The biggest mistake students make in this assignment is proposing an experiment on a question that has already been done.
Your job is to find a novel question to answer. This could look like a slightly different twist on a question that has been answered (perhaps using a different population or a variation in the design of the experiment that could test different questions). You might also make an argument for why the results of a previously-conducted experiment might no longer hold today (because of social and cultural change, for example), and make a case for retesting it. Or you can come up with an entirely new question, unique to the current moment. No matter what, you must ensure that you are not reinventing the wheel unless you're modifying it.
Beyond that, you can focus on literally any question that you find fascinating. For inspiration, you might consider flipping through a social psychology research journal to find out what kinds of questions people are asking and how they use experimental research methods to answer those questions. A partial list of such journals can be found here: https://www.socialpsychology.org/journals.htm (Links to an external site.) . You should also refer back to the chapter on Social Psychological research methods in The Social Animal (Chapter 9 in the 12th edition) for guidance experimental design.
Step 2
Once you have chosen a topic, find 4-6 journal articles about similar questions that you can use to enhance your knowledge. These will become part of your literature review (see below). You can choose up to two selections (but no more) from Inside Social Life if they are relevant to your research question. You’ll be able to find ample material by searching with Google Scholar or JSTOR, accessible through the UCSC library’s search engines. JSTOR, in particular, is rich with social science journals. You may find this “How to search on JSTOR” video helpful: https://support.jstor.org/hc/en-us/articles/115004701828-Search-Help-Resources-Overview (Links to an external site.)
Step 3
After you have done the background reading, come up with an experimental research design that would answer your question. Keep in mind that traditional Sociology almost never employs experiments in research. We work more frequently with ethnography, participant-observation, surveys, and content analyses, so you’re going to be thinking outside the box a bit in terms of what you have learned in your Sociology major classes thus far. Social psychological experiments are different from sociological research because they are -- wait for it -- experiments :-)
In an experiment, you’ll need to figure out the following things:
· Your hypothesis (what you predict will happen or what possibilities you are trying to test)
· What /who your research population will be (and why)
· What your sample size and sampling method will be (remember that only random sampling can be generalized, so plan accordingly if you want your results to be generalizable)
· How you will design your research such that you have A) one control group and B) one or more group(s) in which some variable is manipulated.
Remember to consider the basic framework of research ethics using human subjects: no children, no prisoners, no subjects who cannot legally consent to participate, no causing harm to people. Recall that some of Social Psychology’s most talked-about research (such as the Stanford Prison Experiment) would no longer be considered ethical today. Please do not propose unethical research!
You cannot mislead people in any way that could cause them harm. However, you are allowed to mislead people in innocuous ways about the purpose of the research. For example, in Darley and Batson’s experiment in the chapter on conformity (Chapter 4 in the 12th edition), in which seminary students were asked about their theological motivations for becoming ministers, the goal of the experiment was actually to discover whether their theological motivations had an effect on whether they would stop and render aid to a person on the street who appeared to be in medical need. Misleading the students was critical to getting accurate data, but the misleading did not cause them harm.
Step 4
Write your final proposal! Here are the elements to include:
In general: a formal tone throughout. While we have done some informal and reflective writing elsewhere during this class, a research proposal is necessarily formal; you’re trying to convince people with money/power to either fund your research or to give you institutional approval to conduct it. You should still write plainly and clearly but keep the tone academic and professional. You need to convince them of its importance.
An introduction that outlines your research topic. The intro should also contain a brief justification for your research: given what is already known, why is it important to answer the question you are asking? Please include an explanation of your hypothesis, if you have one, or what you hope to learn if you do not have one. How does this research have the potential to positively impact the social world? How could the knowledge it creates be used for good? (1-2 pages)
A brief literature review (4-6 peer-reviewed academic sources from Sociology, Psychology, or Social Psychology) covering what is already known about your topic, or topics “adjacent” to it. (2 pages). If you are not a Sociology student or otherwise don't have experience with literature reviews, google "how to write a literature review." There's a ton of guiding info online.
A comprehensive explanation of your research design that covers the following:
· The population you intend to study and why it is the best choice of population to answer your question.
· Who your control group will be.
· What the experimental condition (or conditions) will be.
· What measurement tools you will use to assess the outcome of the experiment.
· How participants’ safety and confidentiality will be ensured.
· What tools you will use to assess and analyze the data.
· A discussion of any problems you can anticipate encountering and how you would address them if they arose. (1.5-3 pages)
A conclusion that reaffirms the importance of the research and its implications for new knowledge of the social world. (1/2 page)
A Works Cited list in ASA format that includes all of your outside sources (on a separate page; not part of your total page count for the paper). ASA Quick Style Guide: http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/documents/teaching/pdfs/Quick_Tips_for_ASA_Style.pdf (Links to an external site.)
Step 5
Edit for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and writing mechanics. Use Grammarly (Links to an external site.) or a similar program (no matter how good you think you are at editing, you are less likely to spot your own errors; people who write for a living ALWAYS use an editor). If you have access to another human brain, use that person to help you see the editing issues you wouldn't otherwise see.
Step 6
Double-check formatting: the paper should be no more than 1400 words, double-spaced and in 11 or 12-point Times New Roman.